This is a debt mutual fund screener for fund selection, fund portfolio tracking and learning. It also includes hybrid funds that invest in bonds. It will satisfy investors who wish to invest in money market funds, banking and PSU funds etc. The credit quality of the bonds in the portfolio and the bond maturity profile…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Dear sir, thank you for the helpful insights on Life Insurance Claim Settlement Ratio for FY 2020-21. Can we get similar data for health insurers?” Life insurance claims are binary. Either insurer pays in full (one) or not (zero). So you can define a claim settlement ratio as the number of claims…
Continue reading →Aparna asks, “Dear Sir, short term fixed deposit interest rates have started to increase. Can you please write an article on which type of mutual funds we can invest in to benefit from interest rate increase?” Since May 2020, the Repo Rate has remained constant at 4%. So this has many observers jumpy and expecting…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Dear sir, can you please let us know the list of mutual funds that invest 50% in equity and 50% in bonds? I ask this after reading your article – Will Benjamin Graham’s 50% Stocks 50% Bonds strategy work for India?” Such a fund can serve as an efficient one-fund portfolio option…
Continue reading →This is a passive fund screener based on tracking error and return difference wrt benchmarks. The screener will help a user evaluate how efficiently an index fund has tracked its underlying benchmark. It will also help a understand how tracking a midcap index or the Nifty 100, 500 is quite different from tracking the Sensex…
Continue reading →Last year in our reader story series, we met 30-year old Rohit, whose early struggles led him, to start investing early in a goal-based manner. He has been kind enough to share an update on his finances – how he handled short term goals last year and why he feels confident about his retirement planning. About…
Continue reading →In a circular dated Jan 13th 2022, Motilal Oswal (MO) AMC announced the suspension of lump-sum investments and switch in (from other funds) into Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 Fund of Fund, Motilal Oswal S &P 500 Index fund and Motilal Oswal MSCI EAFE Top 100 Index fund. Why was this done? Up to June 3rd…
Continue reading →Here are four qualities needed to become a successful investor. Thankfully we can develop these qualities in time. We neither need to be smart nor intelligent to succeed in money management. 1. Individuality: We need to be clear about why we are investing. Otherwise, the smallest perturbation – a market up move or down move,…
Continue reading →The life insurance claim settlement ratio for FY 2020-21 is presented below. These were published in the IRDA annual report in Dec 2021. The reader must appreciate that the claim settlement ratio (CSR) is not a life insurance claim acceptance probability! Even if you make the mistake of assuming it represents a probability, a high …
Continue reading →In this article, a client shares how a SEBI registered investment advisor and fee-only financial planner (Swapnil Kendhe) helped him set his finances in order. Those wondering what to expect from a fee-only financial planner will benefit from this. The client prefers the pen name ‘safed pigeon’. About the advisor: Swapnil is a SEBI Registered Investment…
Continue reading →Apurva asks, “You often talk about the importance of discipline in investing. How do I become more disciplined?” Hard work and discipline are often not recognised as talents anyone can develop (at least in principle). Here are two steps to becoming more disciplined in everything that we do. Organisation Routine 1. Organisation: Now that we…
Continue reading →The freefincal Equity Mutual Fund Performance Screener (Janury 2022) is now available. Use it to screen for consistently performing equity mutual funds. You can screen based on fund category & benchmark and spot mutual funds with a higher return than a benchmark at a lower risk. Inside, you get discounted links to our two courses:…
Continue reading →A viewer on our YouTube channel asks, “Sir, are conservative hybrid funds a good alternative for FD? Especially the Parag Parikh Conservative Hybrid Fund. They seem to be investing only in govt bonds, and for stable returns, they are investing in dividend stocks like ITC and coal India. is this fund safe?” Let us expand…
Continue reading →This time on reader stories we meet a 24-year-old budding lawyer who prefers the pseudonym Mr Rakmo Hurtak. He believes his investment strategy is ‘okay’ (for his age and circumstances) but has a curious problem. He is not satisfied with “wealth creation” and needs a goal for his investments! This is of course fantastic as a…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “I have a query regarding mutual fund expense ratios. Let’s say, we have Fund A with 5-year returns of 15% and expenses of 0.5%. Fund B, with returns of 18% with an expense ratio of 1.2%”. “I consider Fund B as a better fund as it has a better return even after…
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